South Africa

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This overview gathers the research institutions in South Africa that appear in the library's collection of scientific papers. An institution is included when its researchers wrote at least two of the papers held on this site, and each is credited for the cited work its scientists did while based there. The overview belongs to the wider directory of institutions, and the full set of South African entries is listed under South Africa.

All of the organisations shown are universities or are classed as universities. No companies, government laboratories, hospitals or independent research institutes meet the threshold on this site. The picture is therefore an academic one, and it reflects what the library holds rather than the country's research system as a whole.

The institutions are spread across several cities. Three are in and around Cape Town: the University of Cape Town in Rondebosch, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town, and Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch. Two are in Johannesburg: the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand. The other three are the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, North-West University in Potchefstroom, and the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

The institutions in order

The list opens with the University of Cape Town, based in Rondebosch. Its body of work here is small, and its citations are modest compared with several of the institutions listed after it. On this site its presence comes from a few papers rather than one large, highly cited contribution.

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town comes second. It has one of the smallest groups of papers on the list, but those papers have drawn much more attention than their number would suggest. Among the South African institutions here, only Stellenbosch University's work is cited more. Its name points to a focus on the mathematical sciences, but the overview does not break its output down by topic.

The University of Pretoria comes third. It has more papers in our library than most of the others, and their combined citations place it third, just behind the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. Its work is both fairly broad in volume and well cited.

Stellenbosch University is fourth in the order but stands out in almost every other way. It shares with the University of the Free State the largest group of papers among South African institutions on this site. Its citations are far higher than those of any other institution listed; the gap is wide enough that much of the country's cited output in the library comes from work done at Stellenbosch.

North-West University in Potchefstroom is fifth. It has several papers here, more than the Cape Town and Johannesburg institutions with the smallest groups, but those papers are the least cited of any on the list. Its work in the library may be recent, specialised, or simply not yet widely referenced. The overview does not say which.

The University of Johannesburg follows. It just meets the threshold for inclusion, yet its papers are cited more than those of several institutions with more works. Among the eight, it ranks fourth by citations.

The University of the Witwatersrand, also in Johannesburg, looks much the same. It too has only a small number of papers in our library, and its citation total is close to that of its Johannesburg neighbour. Together the two Johannesburg universities show a pattern of few but well-referenced contributions.

The list closes with the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. Its share of papers in our library is the largest, matched only by Stellenbosch University. Its citations, however, are modest: higher than those of the University of Cape Town and North-West University, but well below the other universities. Of all the institutions here, it shows the clearest contrast between how much work it has and how often that work is cited.

Research strengths

The overview does not attach subject areas, topics or departments to the South African institutions. Readers who want to know what each one works on should go to the individual institution pages, which hold the works, their citations and any topical grouping. What can be said from the overview alone is how volume and citation are spread.

Two broad patterns appear. The first is concentration. Stellenbosch University accounts for by far the largest share of cited work among South African institutions in the library. Whatever fields its scientists work in, their papers have been referenced far more often than those from anywhere else in the country on this site. Any account of South African research as the library shows it is, to a large degree, an account of the work done at Stellenbosch.

The second pattern is the gap between quantity and attention. The University of the Free State and Stellenbosch University have equally large groups of papers, yet their citation totals differ hugely. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand each have only a small number of papers, but those are cited more than the larger groups from the Free State or North-West. A large presence and a highly cited presence are therefore quite separate things among the institutions here.

The University of Pretoria sits between these two patterns. Its output is moderate in size, and its citations are well above the median for the country's institutions on this site. It is the only institution outside the Cape Town area to rank among the top three by citations.

Geography of the work

Grouped by place, the institutions in and around Cape Town carry most of the cited output. Stellenbosch University, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the University of Cape Town together make up a large majority of South Africa's citations in the library. Most of that comes from Stellenbosch, and a smaller but still substantial part from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. The University of Cape Town adds comparatively little on this site.

Johannesburg has two institutions, the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand. Each has a small group of papers, and their citations are similar. Taken together, they are the second-largest urban cluster by citations after the Cape Town area, though still far behind it.

Pretoria, through its university, adds a body of work similar in scale to Johannesburg's combined total. Further from the large metropolitan centres, Potchefstroom and Bloemfontein are represented by North-West University and the University of the Free State. Both have more papers here than the Johannesburg institutions, but less cited work.

Leading institutions

Here, the first-listed entries are institutions rather than individual scientists, since the national overview names no researchers. In order, they are the University of Cape Town, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the University of Pretoria and Stellenbosch University, followed by North-West University, the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of the Free State. The scientists behind each institution's papers, and the works they wrote, appear on the individual institution pages linked above.

For readers looking for highly cited South African work in the library, Stellenbosch University is the obvious place to start. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the University of Pretoria come next. For readers interested in the widest spread of papers, the University of the Free State and Stellenbosch University have the most.

Landmark works and collaborations

The national overview does not list individual papers, so no single work can be named here as the country's most cited. The most cited papers for each institution are shown on that institution's own page. Given how citations are spread, the most cited South African work in our library is very likely to come from Stellenbosch University. Confirming which paper it is, and what it did, requires the Stellenbosch page itself.

In the same way, the overview does not show links between institutions, co-authorship, or partners outside South Africa. It is not possible to say from it whether, for example, the two Johannesburg universities work together, or whether the Cape Town area institutions share authors. Such ties, where they exist, appear at the level of individual works and their authors.

Scope and limits

This overview should be read as a description of South Africa's presence in one library of scientific papers, not as a map of the country's research. Only universities whose researchers wrote two or more papers held here are included. Institutions with a single paper, or with work that the library does not yet hold, do not appear. Because the collection grows over time, both the membership of the list and the balance between institutions may change.

Within those limits, the picture is clear. South Africa is represented on this site entirely by universities, spread across Cape Town and its surroundings, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Potchefstroom and Bloemfontein. Stellenbosch University dominates the cited work. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the University of Pretoria form a second tier. The other institutions add papers whose reach in the library varies widely, from the well-cited Johannesburg contributions to the larger but less cited groups from the University of the Free State and North-West University.